Knitting

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Increases and Decreases for Lace Knitting

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candle flame cowlBecause I can do that, I decided that this week ought to be devoted to lace knitting. Lace is great for summer, and it’s fun to knit any time. Even just a little bit of lace as an edging or a panel on a garment can make it look fancier, but it doesn’t have to be difficult.

Lace comes down to the strategic placement of holes (we call them eyelets and they’re made by a technique known as the yarn over) and decreases that usually serve to keep the stitch count the same from row to row.

While we usually see yarn overs before a knit stitch, there are different situations where you might encounter yarn overs and it’s good to be comfortable with them if you’re going to knit lace.

There are lots of different decreases you may encounter because they, too, are used for decorative effect. A knit two together, for example, slants to the right, while a slip, slip, knit goes to the left. Lace knitting is also the most common place to find what’s often called a “centered double decrease” because that’s what it is, or an s2kp (slip two, knit 1, pass the slipped stitches over) because it’s that, too.

How do you feel about lace knitting? I like it but I don’t have the patience for difficult/big projects. Which is why we’ll stick with the pretty easy stuff this week.

(The project pictured, by the way, is one of my favorites, the Candle Flame Cowl, which looks fancy but only uses yarn overs and knit two togethers.)

Comments

  1. I just tonight finished the Zepherine cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2014. It has a lace yoke, which is the last thing you knit before it’s done. If I hadn’t promised this sweater to my grandma, it probably would have been put in the naughty corner. The bottom is simple, but boring. The top is fun, but apt to stretch with the weight of the whole sweater. But. Done and dusted, I just have to sew buttons and block it tomorrow.

Have you read?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.